


A Good Husband

by Akaina_Skye



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Divorce, F/M, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 12:12:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5247866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akaina_Skye/pseuds/Akaina_Skye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ed lives in Risembol with his wife, granny, brother and the kids. Everything seemed fine in the Elric/Rockbell household until Ed walked in on something he wasn't ready for. Winry bashing (sorry) and divorce. Winry/Ed and Roy/Ed(friendship or yaoi not sure yet)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Husband

Hello Again!! A new story to work on while I get through the road block with the others. I have not abandoned them merely hit a rock in the middle of the road. Onward to the new story and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: FMA does not belong to me!

Title: A New College Life

Pairing: current and past Winry/Ed; possible Ed/Roy Friendship (yaoi?) IDK

Summary: Ed lives in Risembol with his wife, granny, brother and the kids. Everything seemed fine in the Elric/Rockbell household until Ed walked in on something he wasn’t ready for. Winry bashing (sorry) and divorce.

Part One

_Brother, April 8, 19**_  
_Please come home. What’s wrong? Winry isn’t talking and the kids are asking about you and I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t want to lie to them but you left without saying anything. You left without a look at the kids or me. What happened? I tried calling the normal hotels looking for you when we used to travel and no one has seen you. Maybe this letter will get to General Mustang and he will be able to find you. I’ve no idea where else to look for you. Please just come home or call me, brother. I want to know what is going on._  
_-Alphonse_

_Brother, April 30, 19**_  
_Brother. It’s been a month. The kids are starting to think that you don’t want them anymore. Conner left a week ago. Winry threw him out of the shop and was yelling at him. She still won’t tell me what happened that night that you left. She’s quieter now. Something is wrong. Something with you and her. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what is wrong. Please, brother, I want to help you. Let me help you. You need to come home and talk. Don’t be like dad. Don’t leave and abandon your kids like you always accused him of doing. Come home._  
_-Alphonse_

Ed sighed and placed the letters in his lap. Two letters opened and read and a few others still lay closed on the coffee table in front of him. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave the kids but he wasn’t sure he was ready to face Winry yet. Leaning back, he closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the couch.

“Ignoring those letters won’t help whatever mess you’re in,” General Roy Mustang said from behind his desk, not bothering to look up from his work. “Especially since you showed up at my house a month ago with no explanation as to why, I think I am owed an explanation.”

“I don’t know,” was the short reply.

“I have time,” Mustang stated as he looked up from his work and leaned back in his chair. “You showed up at my house looking as if someone had died and I have allowed you to stay with me with no questions asked. I’ve lied for you when Alphonse called asking about you and I haven’t made you do or say anything.”

For a moment, Ed didn’t reply. His mind was muddled with thoughts and images of that night he had left. That night that everything had changed for him. He didn’t know that anything could hurt him more than all the pain he had gone through already.

“Winry,” he started as he opened his eyes and sat up a bit. “I thought everything was great between us and that everything was going well. Trish and Maes are six and four so we’ve been together for a while now.” He paused. “I guess nothing can be good forever.”

“Ed…”

“You know Winry owns an automail shop. She makes most of the money that supports us since I can’t do alchemy anymore and left the military,” he said, glancing at Mustang. When the general nodded, Ed continued, “Well, there have been a lot more fights lately over stupid shit and more people have needed automail because of that. The shop got busier in the last six months or so. I’m not very helpful when it comes to that type of stuff so I keep to the house and take care of the kids. Al helps me sometimes. She needed help so we went and hired Conner, a new automailer that showed up in town not much longer before that. At first everything was great. Winry would come home for dinner and tuck the kids into bed after their baths. It was great.” He paused with a sad smile on his face. “After the first two months it started going downhill. Winry started to come back later and later. No explanation and I didn’t ask for one. I figured that she was working on some important automail client.”

“Ed…” Mustang stood up from his seat and moved around the desk to take a seat next to Ed.

“A month ago I went to the shop because Trish was asking that her mom read her a bedtime story,” he continued, a bit quieter now. “How could I refuse? So I went looking for Winry, knowing that she’d be in the shop like usual. When I opened the door to the shop I froze. I wasn’t ready for the sight in front of me.” Taking a deep breath, he turned and looked at Mustang in the eyes. “Why hadn’t I seen it?” Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and tried to keep himself from crying again. “Conner had Winry against the workbench. They didn’t hear the door open and they didn’t see me standing there watching. I was frozen to my spot. My body didn’t want to move but my mind was screaming at me. I don’t understand. Why?”

Mustang didn’t say anything at first and only moved his hand to place it on Ed’s shoulder. “Sometimes ‘why’ is the hardest question to have answered,” he started as he squeezed a bit. “You are more than welcome to stay at my place, Ed, but I don’t want you lying anymore. Not to me and not to your family. Go home and talk. If you need to come back, my door is open.”

“I know that you are right. You are right almost all of the time but…” Ed shook his head and stood. “I’ll go home and talk.”

Roy stood and followed Ed to the office door. “Don’t blow anything up, okay?”

Smirking, Ed shrugged. “No promises, old man.”

The next thing Ed knew was that he was standing on the platform at the train station in Risembol. Taking a deep breath he ran tried to force the images from the last moment he saw Winry from his mind. The train ride was long and stressful. It gave Ed lots of time to rethink what he was doing. _I can’t just leave the kids like that,_ he thought to himself, glancing down at the letters. _They don’t deserve that no matter how I feel about Winry_.

“Hey Ed,” one of the older man called to him as he stepped off the platform. “Haven’t seen you around in town for a while, where ya been?”

“I was visiting an old friend in Central,” he replied with a small wave before continuing up the pathway.

“Well you tell Alphonse and that wife of yours not to keep you hostage at home,” the man continued as Ed walked away. “The old ladies miss ya.”

Ed waved his hand again.

After a moment he stood at the gateway to his house, the home that he shared with Winry and the rest of his family. He moved up the pathway and stopped on the front porch. Inside, he could hear the kids playing with Al and the laughter that the three of them were sharing.

“It’s been quiet around here,” Pinako said from behind him as she, too, approached the house. “Winry is in the shop, go talk to her.”

Ed watched as she disappeared into the house and took a deep breath before turning away and moving toward the shop. The last time he entered the shop caused him to leave for a month. He hoped this time he didn’t find the same scene as he had before. Once outside the shop doors, he knocked on the wood before pushing the door open.

“I want to be alone, granny,” Winry said, her voice quiet and distant.

“I’m not granny.”

He saw her body freeze for a moment before slowly turning around. “Ed…”

“I’m not here to argue or yell or scream,” he stated as he stepped into the shop and closed the door behind him. “I’m not going to apologize to you for leaving the way I did. I owe the kids the only apology that will be given.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Just answer one thing for me. Why?”

“Ed,” she started, hanging her head. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, Winry, I want an answer.”

“I don’t know what came over me,” she said as she shook her head before lifting it up and looking at him through watery eyes. “It was wrong. I was wrong.”

“We’ve been together for almost seven years, Winry,” he replied, trying to keep his voice even. “Didn’t that mean anything to you? The kids? Did you really think that you could get away with this?”

“I didn’t mean for you to see that!” She cried, loudly. “No! I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

Ed shook his head. “Didn’t mean for me to see? How long?”

She didn’t say anything.

“How long, Win?”

“Two months before you saw,” she whispered, hanging her head again.

“I can’t stay here with you anymore.” He turned to leave.

“No!” Winry jumped from her seat and reached out for him. She grabbed his left wrist and kept him from leaving the shop. “No, please. Give me another chance.”

“Two months. Two months I was a fool. I thought that you were only in this shop to work on automail for the clients,” he said as he shook his head. “The last six years were great and I did everything to support you. I just can’t anymore.”

“No!”

“I’m going to the house to spend some time with the kids,” Ed stated as he pulled his hand free from Winry’s grasp. “I won’t be staying in the bedroom while I’m here. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I won’t abandon the kids like my father did.” He placed his hand on the door handle and pulled it opened. “I can’t do this anymore, Winry.” He heard crying as he closed the door behind him and made his way to the house.

_This isn’t over yet_ , he said to himself. _She’s going to try again tomorrow. I don’t know what to do anymore._

He pushed the door open to the house and smiled at the sound of his kids again. Quietly, he closed the door and moved to stand in the archway that led into the living room. Trish and Maes sat on the floor with their backs to him, trying to put the pieces together of the puzzle they were working on. The smile on his face only grew as he stepped further into the room, gaining Al’s attention first.

“Kids, why don’t you take a break,” Al suggested with a smile on his face.

“Uncle Al,” Trish whined as she sat back a bit to look up at him. “We’re almost done.”

“Then how about some help?” Ed asked as he moved to kneel behind the two kids.

Trish spun around faster than he thought was healthy and launched herself into his arms. “Daddy!!”

“Whoa there, kiddo,” he said as he was pushed back on his butt. “I’m home.”

“Where were you? Maes and I were worried about you!” She scolded him with a stern face.

“I had to go away for a little while,” he replied, quietly, flicking his eyes up at Al.

“Are you staying home now?”

“Trish…”

“Mommy stays in the shop most of the day,” she said as she looked down a bit. “We don’t get to see her much anymore. Uncle Conner left when you did. Did we do something wrong?”

“No, sweetie, no,” Ed stated, hugging her and smiling. “You and your brother could never do anything to make me want to leave. It’s very complicated right now. Mommy and I will talk to you about it soon, okay, but for right now I want to spend some time with you guys.”

Trish lifted her head and watched him for a moment before nodding and turning his lap to move back to the floor.

Maes found his way onto his dad’s lap as soon as Trisha had moved off of it. He pressed his face into Ed’s chest and wrapped his arms around his waist as much as he could.

“Hey Maes,” Ed whispered as he hugged back. “I’m home, don’t cry.”

Only a few sniffles escape the tight hold that Maes had on his dad.

Ed moved toward the puzzle as much as he could, unwrapped Maes’ arms from his waist and turned him around. The four of them sat on the floor of the living room working on puzzles and reading books until Pinako had called them for dinner. They all entered the dining room and the two kids fought until they were both seated next to their dad. Dinner was a quiet affair except for the kids who kept telling their dad about what they had been up to while he was gone. Winry had stayed quiet unless the kids had asked her something. Afterwards, Ed helped with the cleaning until it was time for baths and bedtimes.

“Ed,” Al started when Ed entered the spare room at the house. “What happened?”

Ed moved and sat on the bed next to his brother. “Winry was having an affair with that Conner guy for two months.”

“Are you serious?!”

He ran a hand through his hair, pulling it from the high tail that he had it in. “I walked in on them a month ago, Al. That’s why I had left.”

Al shook his head and sat back a bit.

“I talked to her before coming inside and she admitted that it’s going on for two months,” he stated as he leaned on his knees and looked toward his brother. “She wants me to give her another chance but when I look at her all I see is that night. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ve never been in this situation,” his brother said in reply. “I can’t believe that she would do something like this. You two were always so happy together.”

“I didn’t want to believe it either but she admitted to it and I saw it.”

“I’m sorry, brother.”

“I don’t want to cause pain to the kids but I can’t stay here,” Ed whispered, covering his face. “Roy said I can stay with him but he’s a day’s ride away.”

“You need to do what you feel is right,” Al replied, sighing. “I understand not wanting to hurt the kids but I think you’ll hurt them more if you stay here and pretend that nothing is wrong. Kids pick up that kind of stuff easy.”

“Why couldn’t things stay the same?”

Al didn’t say anything.

“Can I stay in here with you tonight? I can’t sleep in the bedroom.”

“No problem,” his little brother said, smiling slightly. “It’s been awhile since we’ve spent the night in the same room.”

“Thanks, Al.”

“Get some sleep, brother,” Al said as he moved to get blankets and a pillow for Ed. “We will worry about this more tomorrow, alright?”

Ed lay on the floor at the foot of the bed, staring at the ceiling. _Should I leave? Should I stay? I don’t know what to do anymore. It was so much easier when I threw myself into things and thought about it later_ , he thought to himself and chuckled quietly. _I’m an idiot. What do you think, mom? What should I do?_

He felt himself slip away into unconsciousness as sleep took over. Tomorrow was a new day and maybe, just maybe he’d have the answers he needed.

TBC…

Author Note: So what do you think? I’m trying something new. I’m not sure how this story will progress completely but positive feedback would be great!! Thank you!! Please R&R Loves


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